The issue of aid for Basque learning is really confusing. The citizen who wants to learn Basque must go to more than one window to know how much the course he wants to take and where, how and when he will get the grants. Because it still costs money to study, nothing is free anywhere, and at the same time there are differences in level and place to place. To clarify this chaos is useful the report Urrats, still hankamotz, published in this same magazine by journalist Onintza Irureta Azkune.

HABE launched at the beginning of the course the greater publicity of “gratuity” by announcing that the learning of the Basque language in this first year of the A1, of the initial level, would be free for the students. Little by little we have known that they have the tuition not for free, but cheaper: In other words, instead of EUR 300, they have to pay EUR 70. Nor has it clarified that it will continue to cooperate to the same extent in order to continue the learning process.

Another step on this long and abrupt route was the one given by the Basque Government last year, and that was aimed at a very different group. Its objective was to offer young people between 16 and 18 years of age "free" of charge classes to prepare the title of C1 (former EGA). So I was amazed by the two things. On the one hand, to give priority to obtaining the title and, on the other, to limit it to a certain age group. On the other hand, students who study in Euskera have to go from high school to Euskaltegi, outside school hours, to prepare the degree in Euskera.

This report indicates that incentives have influenced the number of students who have approached Euskaltegis. And in 16- to 18-year-olds, it's actually doubled. In the past year, 2,700 students were registered and in this course they stood at around 5,000, according to figures from the CAV.

There will be differences from place to place, but knowing the data of some centers, more than half of the students will be prepared to get the degree. These are young people who have studied and are studying in model D, mainly Bachillerato. They take courses of between 120 and 190 hours, one in the self-learning module and the other in the classroom module; and the tuition price is about 30 euros, 0.20 euros per hour, the cheapest of all the offers of the Euskaltegi.

I assume that the results of the tests will be improved and that there will be more young people in the institutes with the title C1. In addition to helping the high school teachers, it will also be a relief, as it is not pleasant for so many students who have studied in Euskera to suspend the exam for the title (as often happens). Parents are also happy because their children have one more title that will serve them for the world of work, which will cost them expensive. In the Basque Country it is also not angry, because they have more students and, in addition, a young clientele that will have continuity each year, rejoicing the agony of the enrollment in September and rejuvenating the students.

I, with a question in my mind: when we are so weak in communication capacity, that most of the population has difficulty understanding and many who know are not easy to speak, is it a priority to give private classes to get the title to young people from 16 to 18 years of age in model D? Is the Department of Education not once again trying to plug the impossibilities of teaching?